General Awareness

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY - February 2017

Feb 2017

Dec 13, 2020

SBI General Insurance, Mahindra Partner to Enter Tier 2 and 3 Cities

SBI General Insurance has partnered with Mahindra Insurance Brokers Ltd (MIBL) to raise its penetration in tier-II and III cities. This association will enable the company to provide health insurance cover to a significant number of people in tier-II and III cities and generate employment.
Under this 'Sajhedaari programme', the insurer hopes to make a significant milestone in realising its vision to be the most-trusted general insurer. SBI General is also associated with MIBL for new car, commercial vehicle, tractors and used-car insurance. In the digital space also, SBI General has partnered with PAYBIMA, a digital platform by MIBL for providing affordable insurance solutions.

Blackstone to Buy Piramal Glass for $1 Billion

Blackstone Group Inc. has agreed to acquire the glass unit of Indian conglomerate Piramal Enterprises Ltd. for about $1 billion.
The transaction could be announced as soon as in the next few weeks. The U.S. private equity giant is in talks with banks for about a $400 million, five-year loan to fund the deal.
Piramal Enterprises is looking to sell some non-core businesses to boost capital. In June, the group agreed to sell a 20% stake in Piramal Pharma Ltd. to private equity firm Carlyle Group Inc. for $490 million, giving the business an enterprise value of $2.7 billion.
Piramal Glass makes glass packaging and has factories in the U.S., India and Sri Lanka with a total capacity of 1,475 tons per day, according to its website. The former Gujarat Glass was acquired by Piramal Group in 1984.

ICICI Lombard New Health Insurance Plans: Cashless OPD, sum Insured Protector

ICICI Lombard, a private sector non-life insurance company, launched its ICICI Lombard Complete Health Insurance offering with new health plans and benefits. The plans – Health Shield, Health Shield Plus, Health Elite, and Health Elite Plus, will include the latest features and comprehensive coverage to provide enhanced protection to customers.
Some of the newly introduced coverage benefits include donor expenses, domiciliary hospitalization, emergency assistance, worldwide cover, unlimited reset, air ambulance, super NCB (no claim bonus), sum insured protector and claim protector, cashless OPD services, among others. The company claims to introduce benefits that are aligned to the new normal and, hence, contextual to today's needs of customers.

India Asks EU to Remove Non-tariff Barriers

Commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal on Friday asked the European Union to remove non-tariff barriers and standards so as to increase bilateral trade. At the CEO forum and Sweden-India strategic business partnership, he said that these barriers are "very often unachievable for any country in the world almost other than Europe".
India and Sweden will in the next three months draw up a roadmap to increase bilateral partnership.

Dec 12, 2020

Banks Sanction Rs. 2.05 lakh cr to 81 lakh MSMEs under Credit Guarantee Scheme

The Finance Ministry said that banks have sanctioned loans worth Rs. 2,05,563 crore to about 81 lakh accounts under the Rs. 3-lakh crore Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) for the MSME sector that was impacted by disruptions caused due to the coronavirus pandemic.
As per the Finance Ministry, 40 lakh MSME accounts have received Rs. 1,58,626 crore till December 4.
Announcing Aatmanirbhar Bharat Package 3.0 last month, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said that Rs. 2.05 lakh crore sanctioned and Rs. 1.52 lakh crore disbursed under ECLGS 1.0.

Canara Bank Raises Rs. 2,000 crore via QIP; LIC Largest Investor

State-owned Canara Bank successfully raised Rs. 2,000 crore equity capital by issuing over 19 crore shares to eligible investors.
LIC emerged as the largest investor in the bank's qualified institutional placement (QIP) issue.
The subcommittee of the board at its meeting held on December 11 approved allotment of 19,32,36,714 equity shares to eligible qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) at an issue price of Rs. 103.50 per equity share, aggregating up to Rs. 2,000 crore.
The QIP had opened on December 7 and closed on December 10.

Julien Geffard to Head Ola's EV Business in Europe

Ride hailing major Ola appointed Julien Geffard as the Director of Go-To-Market Strategy for its electric business in Europe as it prepares to launch its range of electric scooters in Europe in the coming months.
In this role, Geffard will be responsible for building and growing Ola's European operations for its electric business and will be based in Amsterdam.
He brings over 15 years of deep automotive experience. Before joining Ola, he was the Global Commercial Director and a member of the board of management at Peugeot Motorcycles. He has worked with Bentley Motors Ltd, Alpine and BMW.

Hyundai Motor Group to Acquire Controlling Stake in Boston Dynamics

Hyundai Motor Group and SoftBank Group Corp. (SoftBank) agreed on main terms of the transaction pursuant to which Hyundai Motor Group will acquire a controlling interest in Boston Dynamics in a deal that values the mobile robot firm at $1.1 billion. The deal came as Hyundai Motor Group envisions the transformation of human life by combining world-leading robotics technologies with its mobility expertise.
Under the agreement, Hyundai Motor Group will hold an approximately 80% stake in Boston Dynamics and SoftBank, through one of its affiliates, will retain an approximately 20% stake in Boston Dynamics after the closing of the transaction. Hyundai Motor Group's affiliates - Hyundai Motor Co., Hyundai Mobis Co. and Hyundai Glovis Co. - and Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Euisun Chung respectively participated in the acquisition.

Dec 11, 2020

Walmart to Triple Exports from India in Seven Years

Global retail major Walmart said that it will triple its exports of goods from India to $10 billion each year by 2027.
The expansion in sourcing will include categories such as food, pharmaceuticals, consumables, health & wellness, and general merchandise, along with the existing mainstays such as apparel and homeware.
Walmart annually sources goods worth about $3 billion, mainly apparel, homeware and jewellery to 14 markets, including the US, Canada, Mexico, Central America and the UK.
Walmart has sourced goods from India for more than 20 years and helped build new capabilities in packaging, marketing and supply chain management.

UAE's Lulu Group to Set Up Food Processing Centre in Jammu and Kashmir

The UAE-based Lulu Group International has announced a plan to set up a food processing centre in Srinagar for sourcing a wide range of agriculture products from Jammu and Kashmir.
The announcement was made by Lulu group chairman Yusuffali MA during a meeting with a delegation from Jammu and Kashmir headed by its Principal Secretary (Agriculture Production and Horticulture) Navin Kumar Choudhary on the sidelines of the UAE India Food Security Summit 2020.
Currently, Lulu imports apples and saffron from Kashmir.
Lulu Group is one of the leading importers of food and non-food products from India and setting up of a new food processing and logistics centre will further boost export of Kashmiri products to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and other countries.
GCC is a political and economic union of six Arab states bordering the Gulf. Its members are the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait and Bahrain.

French Privacy Watchdog Slaps Fine on Google and Azmazon

France's data privacy watchdog has fined Google 100 million euros (USD 121 million) and Amazon 35 million euros (USD 42 million) for breaching the country's rules on advertising cookies.
The CNIL said that the French websites of both companies did not request prior consent from internet users about trackers, or cookies that were automatically saved on computers for advertising purposes.
It said that Google and Amazon also failed to provide clear information to users about the purposes of these cookies and how they might refuse them.

RBI Lifts Restriction on Uttar Pradesh Civil Secretariat Primary Co-operative Bank

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has lifted restrictions on Uttar Pradesh Civil Secretariat Primary Co-operative Bank.
The Bank management committee will give a plan for the workability of the bank to RBI in next 6 weeks.
The Reserve Bank had in 2018 imposed restrictions on UP Civil Secretariat Primary Co- operative Bank Ltd., Lucknow. RBI had directed that the bank shall not grant or renew any loans and advances, make any investment, incur liability including borrowal of funds and acceptance of fresh deposits, disburse or agree to disburse any payment whether in discharge of its liabilities and obligations or otherwise, enter into any compromise or arrangement and sell, transfer or otherwise dispose of any of its properties or assets except to the extent and in the manner provided, without prior approval in writing from the Reserve Bank of India.

Dec 10, 2020

Centre Releases 6th Installment to States to Meet GST Compensation Shortfall

The Centre released the sixth installment of Rs. 6,000 crore to the states to meet the GST compensation shortfall.
With this installment, a total amount of Rs. 36,000 crore has been released so far.
Out of Rs. 6,000 crore released this week, an amount of Rs. 5,516.60 crore has been given to 23 states and Rs. 483.40 crore has been released to the 3 Union Territories (UTs) with Legislative Assembly (Delhi, Jammu & Kashmir and Puducherry) which are members of the GST Council.

Sony to Buy AT&T's Animation Business

Sony Corp will buy AT&T Inc's animation business Crunchyroll for $1.175 billion, as the Japanese electronics conglomerate aims to beef up its entertainment content and distribution businesses.
The deal will give Sony access to Crunchyroll's 3 million paying subscribers across more than 200 countries and regions, helping Sony compete more globally with entertainment giants such as Netflix.
AT&T has been looking to monetize its non-core assets since CEO John Stankey took over in June. The latest deal will allow it to invest in other focuses of WarnerMedia, including content creation and gaming.

MFSL Concludes Stake Swap with Mitsui Sumitomo

Max Financial Services Ltd concluded the swap of Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Company's (MSI) 20.57 per cent stake in Max Life Insurance Company Ltd (Max Life) with 21.87 per cent stake in MFSL.
MFSL has allotted 7.54 crore equity shares of Rs. 2 each constituting 21.87 per cent of the paid-up share capital to MSI, on a preferential allotment basis.

Dec 09, 2020

Amazon Eyes Potential Investment in India's Apollo Pharmacy

Amazon.com Inc is considering a nearly $100 million investment in India's pharmacy chain Apollo Pharmacy, facing up to Reliance Industries Ltd and Tata Group in the country's fast-growing drug market.
Amazon already delivers medicines in India and the potential investment would come amid rising competition from Mukesh Ambani's Reliance, which bought a majority stake in online pharmacy Netmeds.
Tata Group is reportedly in talks to pick up a majority stake in e-pharmacy firm 1mg.

Special Task Force to Boost Qatari Investment into India

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Qatar's Amir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani vowed to boost bilateral cooperation in the fields of investment flows and energy security, and decided to create a special task-force to further facilitate investments by the Gulf country into India.
The leaders agreed to remain in regular touch and looked forward to meeting in-person after the normalisation of the public health situation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Fresh Bids Invited for Sale of Pawan Hans

After two unsuccessful attempts, the government invited fresh bids for strategic sale of Pawan Hans along with transfer of management control.
ONGC had earlier decided to offer its entire stake in the company for sale along with government stake.
The government owns 51% stake in Pawan Hans, while ONGC holds 49% stake.
The Centre has invited EoIs from potential buyers by January 19, 2021.

RBI Cancel's Karad Janata Sahakari Bank's Licence

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) cancelled the licence of The Karad Janata Sahakari Bank with effect from the close of business on December 7, 2020, as the lender does not have adequate capital and earning prospects.
The RBI had already imposed select restrictions on the bank since November 2017, besides ordering to appoint a liquidator for the bank.
The RBI maintained that the bank has failed to comply with the Banking Regulation Act, and its continuance was prejudicial to the interests of its depositors and the lender. With its present financial position, the bank would be unable to pay its present depositors in full.

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